a few days away from the computer

my ibook and i have become good friends over the last year. we've spent a lot of time together, gotten to know each other. but this week, i'm a little sick of the little guy. i've been working on deadline after deadline and i'm ready to not be in front of this screen. but as we speak, i'm finishing up the last of the deadlines and about to enter 5 days of bliss....PLAYING HOUSE!! yes, we are officially home owners now!! we'll start to move stuff over tomorrow! and i've bought the sample colors that i'm planning on using and i'll get to see them on the walls tomorrow! wahooo!! i'm hoping to soak up the next 5 days in all its glory (except for the actual moving part!)

oneplace in the new times

my church in phoenix had the cover story in the new times this week (the alternative newspaper). okay, so they exagerated on some stuff and maybe they missed the point of what oneplace is about...but i think there are some good quotes from my friends and it is cool to see what oneplace is up to these days. it seems anytime you read about an emerging church in the newspaper, you have to hear about how the other churches are doing it wrong. maybe they are or maybe they are just doing it differently. but it isn't about the surface stuff, the methodology, that makes churches like this different...it goes so much deeper than that. and i wish critics could see that.

house stuff

well, we had our inspection and final walkthru this past week...we walked in for the inspection and there were 20 people touching up paint (and i felt kinda' bad that i would be painting over all their hard work)...it made me laugh. do builders ever run on schedule? i'm just happy that we will be able to move in next week. and we will be closing on our new place next week. oh so exciting!! this summer will be a whirlwind. trav's mom is coming in to help us paint (and i'm painting every wall in the place!!! wahooo!!) we're going to try to get as much as we can painted before we move in. but before this big week can happen, i will be working like mad trying to meet some deadlines for work. work has been crazy. i mean really crazy. it has been fun and starting to get a little stressful. but i'm happy to have the work and i learning how to work well under pressure.

i'm so excited for trav's mom to come visit...i am so lucky to have such a great mother-in-law. i wish i could just play all week, but i'll have to work some while she's here.

i think i spoke too soon (previous post) that i'm not anxious! ha! okay, i'm anxious. If i could just take a month off of work and play house, i would be one happy camper, but such is life. the bad part of working at home is i will be tempted to work on the house when i need to be working...deadlines will drive me.

living in the waiting

i'm patient right now. i don't feel anxious. and i'm a little surprised at myself...i'm not worried about whether our house will be finished in time for us to close on the 30th. okay, so i'm a little stressed about how many projects i have piling up and how that will work with painting our new place and settling in...but nothing i'm too worked up about. i feel calm. i feel at peace. and if you know me very well, you know i'm a pretty anxious person. i try to live in the moment, but i have a hard time doing that. my mind is always racing...racing ahead, thinking back...always going. and i have a hard time just soaking up the moment i'm in. i'm either analyzing or dreaming...but minneapolis was a 8 month lesson on enjoying the present...because that is what i did. we were stuck in the waiting, of not knowing what would happen with travis' job and i had two choices...i could keep thinking about the next place we would move to or i could enjoy the beautiful city of minneapolis and live in the waiting. i'm glad i chose to live and it has made it easier in this weird time of waiting in portland...waiting to feel settled, to feel at home here, to be in our new place, and find a rhythm of life that resonates with my spirit. these things take time and right now i'm okay with that. i feel like the last 5 months we've been in portland has been an incubator for me...a time to renew my spirit from our adjustments and moves. and i'm at a point now that i'm excited to begin our life here in portland. i realize it has already started, but i feel like it will officially start when we move into our first house.

but as i'm stuck in the waiting, i'm enjoying work. enjoying walks by the river. experiencing new music. enjoying the time travis is home. experiencing new things. reading good books. getting to know the city. and smiling at the clouds. (i just love clouds.)

cool art

i looooovee designs like this. i just want to eat them up.
(thanks to greg, i found this great site)

i like hatchbacks?

there have been a lot of things that I've become interested in since college...and most of them make me step back and say...what? who am i?

hip-hop
history
science
the west coast (nothing against it, i just didn't think it was for me...and then i found the pacific northwest. ahhh.)
tv shows i look forward to
the discovery channel
PBS
NPR
folk music
that there's so much more to a city than downtown
going to bed early and getting up early (this is a recent portland thing...i must be getting old. and it is very strange for the late night kobie to be turning in early!)
thai food
volunteering somewhere (I'm still working on this one)
cooking (i would like to do it more, at least!)
beer (and i've discovered oatmeal stouts are one of my favorites)
and now hatchbacks
but i smile. because even though a may be surprised at my new found interests, i'm enjoying them! and maybe i'll be a little more open to other things.

PHO!

over the last few years i have gotten better about trying new things. for most of my life i stuck to the tried and true...but i have changed my ways...and i actually enjoy trying new things, exploring, discovering... and our new friends here (who, by the way, bought a house 3.44 miles from us!! wahooo!) have given travis and i a little push to explore and enjoy new things.

we tried pho. yes, that's right, PHO! it is wonderful and i'm glad i tried it. i think it will be a regular thing for me!

moving? what?

so lately, i've been anxious to get settled into a new house. thinking about walls to paint (and here are the colors i'm thinking about today...i used this little sherwin williams model to look at my kitchen and dining/living colors.) about decorating. excited to be walking distance to the max with easy access to downtown. great places to hike. looking forward to getting to know the evergreen community better. meeting new people. and then it hit me...for all of this to happen it involves one thing that i am very sick of doing lately...MOVING. PACKING. UNPACKING. i think that travis will be doing the packing again. (he was so dang good in minneapolis, he is rewarded with the job again!) but i know it will be my job to do the unpacking, the figuring out how everything is going to fit in our oh so small space. moving across town is never as bad as moving across the country, like our last 2 moves. no renting a huge truck, no boxing everything. and this will be different, right? we are moving not to a temporary apartment, but a house we'll be in for a little while. i'll put that at the front of my mind.

but now is not the time to be overwhelmed with that now. i have a logo to work on a banner ad to create...

i'm turning granola

i've always had a little granola in me...but travis and i have slowly started caring about the environment, about how much we drive, being resources, treating our bodies well, about living more simply. and minneapolis and portland have definitely been a catalyst to bring out the granola in us. i have this urge to really live naturally and simply. and our move to oregon is the start of something great. i'm excited to see how i allow the people around me to shape me. i guess i feel like there are parts of me that are just dying to come out and i'm excited to see how those part of me come to the surface as we make oregon our new home.

portland was rated number one in the top 50 big cities to care about the environment, use its resources wisely, etc. that is exciting to me and i'm happy to be in a place like that.

what have i been up to lately?

well, travis and i bought a refrigerator on friday...i didn't think buying a refrigerator would be so exciting. it is a stainless steal bottom freezer that we found new on craig's list. and when we went over to pick it up, we met a great couple that just moved to portland...and sal, is a painter and has made a studio in his detached garage. it was inspiring and fun to meet another couple starting their life in portland. it was good to hear about them using the max and selling a car, caring about how energy efficient everything is.

i have started picking out paint colors for our new place. (and it seems i come up with a new color combination everyday...we'll see what we end up doing.)

we've been going to a lot of home stores to look at new stuff...so much fun! it is starting to become real that we are actually going to be in one place for an extended amount of time. yippee!

i'm reading a great book called. "change the way you see everything." my brother recommended it and i really am enjoying it.

we are thinking of making a trip to ikea this week. (phoenix had a ikea. minneapolis had an ikea. but now that i'm really wanting to buy a few things for our new place, i'm going to have to drive to seattle to go to the nearest one. o-well.)

we have become addicted to craig's list. maybe we'll end up finding our dining room table on there.

i loooooveeeee portland weather. if i can still wear a jacket on june 3rd, it is my kind of place. friday it was cloudy and in the 60s and no rain. perfect weather. and even when it is raining, i love it. we'll see what i say after i go through the long winter rainy season. but so far, i have nothing, but good things to say about the weather.